To Kill a Mockingbird/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Moby nervously ascends the front steps of a run-down, traditional, old Southern house. The stairs squeak as he steps on them. Eerie music plays. Tim approaches Moby from behind and surprises him. TIM: Hey, Moby. MOBY: Beep. Moby is startled. He beeps loudly and spins to face Tim. This, in turn, startles Tim. TIM: Aargh. MOBY: Beep. Moby points at the front door of the house. Tim walks up and stands beside Moby. TIM: A creepy monster lives here? The door creeks open, and a cat comes out onto the porch. It sits and looks up at Tim and Moby. CAT: Meow. MOBY: Beep. Moby smiles, relieved. TIM: You know better than to listen to neighborhood gossip. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, We just finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird in school. But I don't get the title. What does it have to do with the story? From, Celia. Titles can be tricky sometimes. Their meaning is usually tied to a book's central theme, its main message. It's no different with Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. MOBY: Beep. An animation shows a hardcover copy of "To Kill a Mockingbird." TIM: The story's set in a small Alabama town during the Great Depression of the 1930s. An animation shows a small town's downtown area during the period Tim describes. People stand around, a pickup truck moves down the street, and a man drives a horse-drawn wagon with supplies. TIM: It focuses on the Finch family, the young narrator, Scout, her older brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus. The book follows Scout on her adventures in the fictional town of Maycomb. An animation shows Atticus, sitting in a living room chair, reading a book to Scout and Jem. MOBY: Beep. TIM: It's very similar to the town where Harper Lee grew up. This was the Jim Crow South, where segregation was a way of life. African Americans were kept apart from whites at school, at the movies, everywhere. An animation shows Jem and Scout looking at a downtown building called Arlene's Café, which has separate entrances marked White and Colored. TIM: The places set aside for them were usually inferior. An image shows two water fountains. The one marked White is much nicer than the one marked Colored. TIM: On top of that, they faced violence and many other hardships. An animation shows two white men harassing a nervous-looking African American man. MOBY: Beep. TIM: The story reflects Harper Lee's family life, too. An image shows Harper Lee. TIM: Like Scout's dad, her father was also a lawyer. An animation shows Harper Lee's father reading a newspaper. The paper's headline reads: Scottsboro Boys: Eight Sentenced to Die. TIM: He was a heroic figure who had a lot in common with Atticus. He defended many innocent victims of the segregated South. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Lee wrote her book in the late 1950s, at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement. Life in the South was changing as people worked to end segregation. Readers around the world were hungry for a firsthand portrait of the troubled region. An image shows African American protestors marching with signs that read "Voting Rights Now," "Jobs for All," and "End Segregation." Other images show a poster announcing a boycott of city buses by African American commuters, police beating African Americans in the streets, and a racially integrated lunch counter. TIM: When To Kill a Mockingbird came out in 1960, it was a huge success. It won the Pulitzer Prize and was made into an award-winning movie. Images show the novel and a poster from the movie adaptation. TIM: It was an instant classic of Southern Gothic literature. MOBY: Beep. TIM: That's a genre that deals with the identity of the American South. It's depicted as a ruined country with a tragic history. To communicate that, the settings are often creepy and decayed. An animation shows shabby houses in a dirty, rundown neighborhood across the street from a cemetery. TIM: Supernatural beings and sinister events create a haunted mood. And the characters are often outcasts from normal society. A stooped man with shaggy hair and a long beard wheels a wheelbarrow full of soil across the cemetery. TIM: This is where mockingbirds come in. A mockingbird flies in and perches on the railing of the porch on which Tim and Moby are standing. TIM: In several passages, they're described as harmless and innocent. They go on about their business, happily singing their songs. The mockingbird sings as Tim speaks. TIM: Atticus says that hurting one would be a sin. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Exactly. Certain characters in the book are just like mockingbirds. Boo Radley, Scout's mysterious neighbor, keeps to himself, never bothering anyone. An animation shows Boo Radley looking out the window of his house. TIM: That makes him the target of cruel gossip. An image shows two men in front of Boo Radley's house, whispering about him. TIM: Scout and Jem are warned to keep away, simply because he's different. An animation shows an elderly woman talking sternly to Scout and Jem in front of Boo Radley's house. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Rumors can be powerful weapons, especially in small towns. Many people rely on them to form their opinions and justify their beliefs. In Maycomb, petty gossip creates an atmosphere of fear and intolerance. An animation shows Boo Radley looking out his window at the elderly woman as she shoos Scout and Jem away from Boo's house. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yep. Lee was definitely making a comparison to the segregated South. Scout and Jem are exposed to its evils through the book's other mockingbird character, Tom Robinson. An animation shows Tom Robinson, a young African American man. He is sitting on a public bench and feeding breadcrumbs to a mockingbird. TIM: He's a kind man who doesn't think twice about helping others. But since he's African American, that instinct lands him in jail, accused of a serious crime. The mockingbird flies away from Tom Robinson, and the scene changes to show him behind bars. TIM: In the novel's most thrilling scenes, Atticus defends Tom in court. An animation shows Atticus and Tom sitting together at the defendant's table in a courtroom. A judge's gavel bangs in the background. MOBY: Beep. TIM: The Finches are much more sympathetic to people like Tom and Boo. Scout comes to realize that initial impressions can be totally wrong. And how biases prevent us from appreciating the beauty in things. An animation shows Scout walking hand-in-hand with Boo Radley. TIM: Atticus tells her that the only way to understand someone is to "climb into his skin and walk around." Tim hears the sound of a zipper. He looks to his side. Moby has zipped himself into a costume and mask that looks like Tim. TIM: Dude, not literally. Moby lifts the mask part of the costume, showing his own face. TIM: Atticus meant seeing things from other people's point of view. An animation shows Boo Radley looking out his window at Scout, who looks back at him. The Finch family's mailbox is visible, with a finch perched on it. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Oh, yeah. Good catch. A finch is a type of bird, too. The bird pecks on the Finches' mailbox. TIM: And in a way, Jem and Scout are like mockingbirds. They lose their innocence as they come face-to-face with evil in the real world. That's what makes this a coming-of-age novel. An animation shows Jem and Scout walking through the woods. Scout is dressed like a giant ham. The two are attacked by a grownup. TIM: It follows characters as they grow from children into young adults. An animation shows a shelf filled with coming-of-age books, including "The Catcher in the Rye," "The Outsiders," "Little Women," and "The Fault in our Stars." TIM: For Scout, it's about developing a more complex view of good and evil. An animation shows Scout pondering the issue Tim describes. She thinks about a balance scale, with one side representing good and the other evil. TIM: Instead of seeing them as separate, she comes to understand that in most situations, they're all mixed together. An animation shows Scout thinking about an angel and a devil. The two images combine into a single being. TIM: That sense of moral ambiguity marks her advance toward maturity. MOBY: Beep. Tim looks over. Moby is still dressed in his Tim costume. His mask is back on, and he is holding a word balloon that reads: Blah, blah, blah. TIM: I wish you'd advance toward maturity, sometimes. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts